Rating:  - Using DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20I recently purchased the DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20 with Street Atlas 2007 program for my laptop. I was very simple to install and I've loaded it both on my laptop and home desktop. I will use the desktop load as a reference. The laptop install will be used in place of an expensive Handheld or vehicle mounted GPS unit. The DeLorme program comes with a GPS attachment that connects to your USB and sits on your dash. The program is easy to use and shows more detail than the expensive units. I am an older male and have a little trouble seeing the small handheld units. The 15.4 screen on my laptop gives a better display of where you are going, plus it gives turn by turn instructions verbally as well as by road view. The program was put together very well. I even tried to get the program "lost" by making wrong turns, but ending up on another route that the program finally stopped telling me to turn around and instead told me it was "reconfiguring my route", then telling me I was 29 miles north of my ultimate destination finding the new route. The verbal directions are very well done and don't sound like your usual "artificial intelligence" speaker, but instead use words and phrases easily understandable. I feel the DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20 program to be a very good value and look forward to my 8 state vacation this summer. Rating:  - Needs ImprovementPurchased this product last summer for use with laptop. Receiver worked fine - initial position fixes were a bit slow, but seemed to improve the longer I used the program. The biggest issue for me was the routing algorithm. Recommended routes from starting points to destinations were, in many cases, far from the quickest or shortest (depending on selection). Use of 'vias' allowed me to eventually get a reasonable route, but this was time-consuming. The other major weakness, in my opinion, was with the active routing. During a trip, frequently the program thought that I was off-route and would start announcing "off-route, recalculating route" for several maddening minutes (I frequently muted the speaker for these periods). Also, a small but annoying percentage of turn directions were incorrect, and were sometimes announced only a few seconds before the directed turn. The voice-activated command feature worked well for me. Another note - Canada street maps contained with this version of Street Atlas are useless. Overall, I've found that the program was of some help when navigating real-time, but was also a frequent distraction while driving, and I haven't used the program for awhile. Rating:  - Typical wierd Delorme productI am a GPS sort of guy, love maps, map software etc... I bought this for a business trip to Detroit, a city that I rarely visit, to use with my new laptop. Tried to install the software on the plane and couldn't due to a driver issue (resolved later - no thanks to the installation software or Delorme). So when I got my rental car I went ahead and rented the Garmin C550 with the car. After getting the Earthmate software installed later in the trip I was able to compare the dedicated product to the Delorme product - There was no comparison. I had become used to the super easy, accurate and fast Garmin product and essentially could not get Earthmate to work. It took forever (not an overstatement) to locate satellites. Really the most frustrating part of this product is the software interface. I use several mapping products MS Trips and street, Garmin etc.. and I simply cold not figure this out. Totally unintuitive, totally non-windows standard. I should have know before I bought this product as other Delorme products (Topo USA) also have a similar non functional interface. This product is going back. Rating: - Blows away Microsoft's Streets and TripsI purchased Streets & Trips with the GPS a few years ago and upgraded the software as it was available... loved it. Then my GPS died, so I decided to give the Delorme (with GPS) a try. The Delorme software and GPS is so much better than Streets & Trips. It's kind of like going from notepad to Word. Rating:  - Very good productI got this as a gift for my husband to use with his Delorme Software and he has really enjoyed it and uses it every day.
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